Sidney’s town council has approved the 2026-2030 Financial Plan following the final budget deliberations held on Monday, March 16th.
The approved budget includes an operating budget of $32.8 million and a capital budget of $12.5 million for 2026.
This will bring Sidney property taxes by a total of 9.37%. This tax increase applies to both residential and commercial properties.
This represents an increase of approximately $176 per home for the year, or about $15 per month.
The Town’s budget is meant to cover the cost of all core services, including the maintenance of roads, sidewalks, parks and underground utilities that people and businesses use daily.
According to the Town, the increase in taxes will also be going towards critical infrastructure upgrades such as improving water mains and pump stations, continuing park improvements and supporting enhancements to police and fire services.
Initially, the proposed tax increase to residents would have been 12.4%, but council managed to reduce and cut funding to some services deemed unnecessary to bring the tax hike down.
“During the budget process, there was a strong focus on keeping the tax increase as low as possible, recognizing the cost-of-living pressures residents and businesses are facing,” said Mayor Cliff McNeil-Smith.
“We deferred several non-urgent capital projects and adjusted our approach to rebuilding reserves to land on a general tax increase of 9.37%.”
This tax hike is the second “higher-than-usual” increase for the residents of Sidney, which the Township says is still being impacted by pandemic budget pressures.
“While past tax increases were among the lowest in the region, supported in part by reserves, we now need to rebuild those reserves while keeping Sidney a vibrant community residents take pride in, and where strong public safety services are available when needed,” added the mayor.
The Town assures residents that once inflation settles and reserves are replenished, tax levels will be able to come back down.
